K Michelle Talks Working with Idris Elba on New Musical

The reality TV star and singer's no-holds-barred approach has earned her legions of fans. And critics. But lately she's changed her tune. "I don't know how I would be able to sleep knowing that I had that much impact over your daughter's life, or something, and I'm just cursing people out and yelling," she told ESSENCE.com.

Singer K. Michelle didn’t have to look far when she was searching for people to partner with to bring her idea for a musical to life. The former Love and Hip Hop: Atlanta star recalls casually telling friend Idris Elba about the idea and he immediately jumped on board. “I told him that I was about to do it and he said, ‘I'm going to do it with you,’” she says, finding little extraordinary in the fact that she calls one of the world’s most desired men in the world, “friend.”

“I told the actresses in the musical when they came in, ‘don’t look at him in his eyes. Leave him alone to work,’” she jokes. “You need to be working, not trying to get all googly-eyed and falling around Idris. I made that very clear. We need focus over here. Okay!”

Elba co-directed Rebellious Soul: the Musical(debuting on VH1 tonight), a 30-minute musical featuring songs from Michelle’s debut album Rebellious Soul, and a somewhat autobiographical look at her life as a stripper. She hopes her past – from the stripping, to her reputation as a hot head on Love and Hip Hop – is something other women can use as a blueprint on humility and changing your life. “I want little girls to be like, ‘Man, we saw her on Love and Hip Hop at her worst behavior’ but now look. I want them to that anything is possible.”

Michelle also has a VH1 reality show called Michelle: My Life coming to VH1 in the fall.